Week 10: Practices in Exile - Reimagining Hope - AWS

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© Grant Harris: Windsor Park Baptist Church (www.windsorpark.org.nz)
Text of a message delivered by Grant Harris at Windsor Park Baptist Church, Auckland, on Sunday 26th May 2019.
The written text may vary from the audio/video version as Grant adjusts his spoken message for time and/or flexibility purposes.

Week 10: Practices in Exile – Reimagining Hope

Key Idea:
As a church in exile we have a certain hope for our present and future. We’re on
the winning side! Let this hope spur us on to continue to live faithfully for God,
evidencing his life, as we wait for Christ to return.

Hope for the world
One of the things I’m interested in is politics; I’m intrigued by how communities (and the world)
are shaped and particularly by the intersection of faith and politics. I do work in the church after
all! Because of this interest I often tune in to the debating chamber of the House of Representatives
on Radio NZ to listen to who’s speaking, what they’re saying, and how they’re saying it. It’s
wonderful entertainment! During this last week the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon)
Amendment Bill was introduced to Parliament which sets out a plan to reduce carbon emission
targets for all greenhouse gases, except methane, to a net zero by 2050, in line with New Zealand's
commitments under the Paris Agreement. I was listening to the debate while driving between
appointments. The most vibrant, articulate and passionate voice was that of 24-year-old Green
MP Chloe Swarbrick; she’s an incredible speaker.

Of course issues around climate change and sustainability are very topical at the moment
throughout the world. Here at Windsor Park we have a group of young people who have recently

instigated an Earth Care Team. They’re looking at our carbon footprint and how we can be more
environmentally friendly – we’ll hear from them in a few weeks when I introduce them to you. As
part of these discussions there is much debate about climate change, global warming, and all of
the various language that is placed around that topic. In my mind there is no denying that we need
to be thinking about these things, but there is no clear solution and actually there is no real
consensus around what the future holds. Every action that is proposed for the world is in the hope
that things will get better – and this kind of hope means that nothing is guaranteed; at the end of
the day there’s a large degree of guesswork involved.

Hope in NZ
Another political hot-potato in NZ at the moment is KiwiSaver, particularly the changes that the
government is suggesting, or not suggesting, depending on whether you listen to the Prime
Minister or the Deputy Prime Minister. If you’re a member of a KiwiSaver scheme, you’ll know the
angst that many people are feeling right now with an estimated 80% of schemes losing money at
the end of 2018 and only around 50% of these schemes sufficiently recovering in 2019. People
are nervously watching the markets in the hope of financial recovery, because there is an
increasing that we won’t be financially secure enough at retirement, which of course is the
number one goal of life, apparently. People are hoping the markets improve – and this kind of
hope means that nothing is guaranteed. We hope it works out, fingers crossed.

Hope in the All Blacks
You all know what’s happening on November 2nd this year right? Of course you do – Jo and I are
celebrating 28 years or married bliss. Also, the 9th Rugby World Cup final will be played at the
International Stadium in Yokohama City, Japan. According to Jo, in the last 28 years of married
life, there seems to have been some major sporting event on at least 27 or the last 2nd November’s,
including the Rugby World Cup final in the middle of our wedding night which I dutifully watched
at 2am from a hotel in Wellington – yes, I’m an old romantic!

Of course our national pride is on the line, again; as long as the All Blacks are winning we generally
do feel good about ourselves – think back to 1987 … and then think about those depressing years
of failure … 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007, but then normal business resumed in 2011 and 2015.
There is of course a general sense that we should win this year, and we hope that we will - of

course we know that hope of success in the arena of sport means that nothing is guaranteed, and
so we hope nervously.

The worldly view of hope
These examples start putting the spotlight on what we generally come to understand hope to be
in our world – as described by the source of all knowledge, Wikipedia, Hope is an optimistic state
of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and
circumstances in one's life or the world at large. As a verb, its definitions include: ‘expect with
confidence’ and ‘to cherish a desire with anticipation.’

Hope in the way we generally use it means ‘wishful thinking’ based on how we want things to turn
out, without any guarantee that they will. Have you ever used these expressions?

 I hope you have a good day.
 I hope the weather is good for my wedding in 9 months’ time.
 I hope I get better.
 I hope God answers my prayers, the way I want Him to.
 I hope Scott Morrison wins the Australian elections … see, sometimes hope works out!

Our world lives in the hope that the world will get better without having a clue whether they will.
We dream about things getting better, we use hope as a metaphor in the arts. In 1971 John Lennon
hoped for a world at peace without the barriers of borders or the divisions of religion and
nationality and as he considered the possibility that the whole of humanity could live unattached
to material possessions. He wrote a song that has become an all-time classic that has been used
as an anthem of hope including being played by German pianist Davide Martello who rolled a
grand piano onto a street outside the Bataclan theatre in Paris the morning after the November
2015 Paris attacks, where 89 concertgoers had been shot dead the night before, and performed
an instrumental version to honour the victims of the attacks:

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us

Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world

Can you imagine that? Do we hope for the peace and unity that this song cries out for? Of course
we do. But do we see any evidence that just living in hope produces the results that we so
desperately seek? It’s a rhetorical question – I don’t need to answer it.

How are you feeling about the world right now? Feels like a down-buzz with what I’ve been
saying!

Biblical Hope
But the kind of hopeful expectation that the world lives under is not the kind of hope followers of
Jesus talk about, and it’s not the kind of hope I want you to have as part of our In\Visible series
we’re going through this year; and this is definitely not the kind of hope we see God’s people living
out in the Bible.

When we place ‘Biblical’ in front of the word ‘hope’ we get something diametrically opposite to
that of the world.

We get certainty.
We get promise.
We get assurance.
We don’t have to imagine.

Hope in the Bible … a few examples.
If you’ve been following our series over the last few weeks, you’ll know we’ve been looking at the
story of Daniel as written in the book of … Daniel. The story of Daniel and his three named friends
(there were a bunch of others) having their lives totally disrupted, being taken into exile into a
foreign land, having their identities stripped, being indoctrinated into new religious practices,
sitting by the rivers of Babylon and weeping as they remembered their home and being tormented
to sing the songs of their God. There they sat, and resolved themselves to never forget that God
was with them. In exile.

Their lives set a pattern that we see the Gospels, that we see the letters of the New Testament,
that we see embedded into the lives of God’s people that hope in Gog is hope realised; it’s not
guesswork or unrealised hope, there is hope to pin your lives one.

 In Daniel Chapters 8-12 we see Daniel dreaming vivid dreams, powerful dreams, dreams
from God, of God, dreams of restoration and dreams of hope. The book of Daniel concludes in
Daniel 12:13 when he says, As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end
of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance. Biblical hope that God is with us
and that the best is yet to come.
 In Luke Chapter 24 we see Jesus affirming that everything that He said would happen to Him,
had happened; that everything He said will happen, was happening. We see Jesus giving the
realised hope for forgiveness of sins, for the coming near of the Kingdom of God, actual hope
that God is with us and that this was being realised in the arrival of the Holy Spirit. Biblical
hope that God is with us and that the best is yet to come.

 In Romans Chapter 8 Paul is urging Christians in the city of Rome to wait in anticipation that
hope will be realised. In Verse 18 he writes, I consider that our present sufferings are not worth
comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us … [Verse 38-29], For I am convinced that
neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any
powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us
from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Biblical hope that God is with us and that
the best is yet to come.
 1 Corinthians 15 proudly sings of the hope we hold for all of eternity, that present day
suffering will be replaced by eternal victory. You all know the last verses [57-58], But thanks
be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers and
sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the
Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain. Biblical hope that God is
with us and that the best is yet to come.

Reimagine Hope
Are you getting the point?! Biblical hope gives us an assurance that God has our lives in hand; He
has a plan; He has achieved victory for those who get onboard with the direction that He has
ordained for the world.

Today I want to urge you to make Biblical hope one of the practices in exile that we’ve been going
through over the last few weeks, add it to the practice of finding Godly wisdom, lay it next to
developing an ‘even-if’ faith, link it to repentance, include it with the stories of faith we tell
through remembering, and when we put all of these practices in exile into action we’ll be
practicing faith in the ways that God’s people have been practicing faith for thousands of years …
combined these things help us hang in as dynamic people of faith who live out changed lives and
exhibit the Fruit of the Spirit … and it’s at this point I wish I was preaching in some of the churches
I’ve been to in the USA because they’d be going crazy right now because they know that God is
with us, He’s shown us what love looks like, He’s given us victory over our selfishness, He gives
us a vision of heaven, He is with us through the power of the Holy Spirit, and Biblical hope sustains
us through everything that might come our way. Can I get an A.M.E.N to that?!

Summary
Biblical hope is far beyond wishful thinking, it’s absolute confidence because we who trust in
God’s Word know the end of the story.

You know I like sports. Sometimes I’ll record games that I can’t watch live. Unlike some of you I
always find out the result before I decide whether to actually watch it. And let me tell you this, it’s
much easier to watch a game when you know the ending … all of the tough calls, all of the tension
of not knowing what will happen, it’s just not there. This is the life for followers of Jesus. We know
how it ends, and when we trust in the Biblical hope that is so clearly laid out for us, it helps us live
in the cluttered world of the present; it doesn’t excuse us from injury and pain and all the things
a broken world inflicts upon us, but Biblical hope does give us the assurance that God is with
us at those times and gives us the assurance of what is to come.

The author of Hebrews summarises it best in Hebrews 6:19-20, We have this hope as an anchor
for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner,
Jesus, has entered on our behalf.

Let me finish with the words I finished with when I preached about Biblical hope last October as
part of our Believe series (remember that message? It was great!). Priscilla Owens was a Sunday
School teacher in the USA in the late 18th century, and ended up writing a number of hymns and
songs for her pupils. The most well-known of them became a foundational song for the Boys
Brigade which still uses the image associated with this song. It’s a song that asks questions and
then gives a statement – may you know the answer and the truth of the statement:

Will your anchor hold in the storms of life?
When the clouds unfold their wings of strife?
When the strong tides lift and the cables strain,
Will your anchor drift, or firm remain?

We have an anchor that keeps the soul
Steadfast and sure while the billows roll,
Fastened to the Rock which cannot move,

© Grant Harris: Windsor Park Baptist Church (www.windsorpark.org.nz)
     Text of a message delivered by Grant Harris at Windsor Park Baptist Church, Auckland, on Sunday 26th May 2019.
 The written text may vary from the audio/video version as Grant adjusts his spoken message for time and/or flexibility purposes.

Grounded firm and deep in the Saviour’s love.

May you choose Biblical hope today.

Amen.

                                                                8

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